"There's a generation that did not grow up with Shelby," said John Luft, president of the Las Vegas-based firm.

"We're giving them a higher platform to work from," said Luft. "An American-built solution.

Shelby does the build-up: the customer buys the base Focus, which will run about $23,000 and it is shipped from Ford to Shelby, where the remake takes place beginning at $14,995.

No more than 500 will be produced each year, Luft said.

The company was launched 50 years ago by iconic driver and builder Carroll Shelby, starting with the Shelby Cobra and advancing through the 1960s on mainly the Mustang platform but also other muscle cars.

Shelby died last year, but the company still prides itself on power: at Detroit it also unveiled the Shelby GT 500 Super Snake Wide Body, based on Ford's GT500 but boosting its 660 horsepower to 850 hp, riding on top of 13 inch rear wheels.

"Carroll's spirit lives on in every one of the cars we sell," said Luft. "We produce the most power of any American production vehicle."

Shelby sells 400-500 cars each year, mostly in North America but increasingly abroad, in the Middle East and Europe especially.